When HP acquired Palm in April 2010, many hoped that this would breathe new life into WebOS and finally provide the platform with a chance to gain traction in the competitive mobile market. Sadly, a little over a year later, it appears that it hasn't worked out that way.

Following abrupt price cuts and rumored poor sales for the HP TouchPad, as well as HP considering possibly spinning off its PC division into a separate company, HP confirmed in a press release today that it is discontinuing all current WebOS tablets and smartphones.

While HP maintains that it will keep options open in terms of future opportunities for the WebOS, this announcement could easily be interpreted as the end of the platform.

I am just speechless, and anyone who's watched our YouTube videos knows that I'm never at a loss for words.

A major corporation spends 1.2billion to buy webOS plus additional costs to continue development and marketing, then kills off the tablet (a very promising product running one of the best mobile operating systems) after 7 weeks. And kills off the phones, including the Pre 3 that just starting shipping and arriving in customers' hands a few days ago in Europe?!

Even though I bought the TouchPad so we could review it and do continuing coverage for MTR, I really enjoyed using it daily and now (wearing my consumer hat) feel like I was taken. Isn't there a law against killing a product and potentially killing the services it depends on to function properly when a customer has bought it only several weeks prior? Oh my word.

And spinning off the PC business, when they're one of the largest and more successful PC makers?

And now they release their earnings and quarterlies via a surprise press release before actually hosting the earnings call? What is going on at HP? Have they all gone mad?

I agree. This is pretty shocking news. We all know I'm an iOS guy , but I have respect for WebOS and its fans. To be honest, I had to recheck the press release and cross-reference other sites because I simply couldn't believe my own post!